Sports

Glenn Reeves: Menlo boys tennis team sets sights on another title

Menlo School will be looking for a six-peat at the Central Coast Section team tennis championships.

The Knights have won the past five CCS championships and are 17-3 this season. Two of their losses were at an early-season tournament in Fresno without their top four players. The other loss was in the semifinals of the National Invitational Tournament in Newport Beach when Menlo tied a team from New York but lost the tiebreaker.

"We're on a roll,'' Menlo coach Bill Shine said. "We haven't lost to a CCS team in six years.''

That loss was to Saratoga in the 2008 CCS semifinals. Shine said he expects Saratoga, Bellarmine College Prep and Menlo-Atherton to be the other top contenders for this year's CCS title.

Victor Pham, Lane Leschly, David Ball and Vikram Chari play Nos. 1-4 singles. Ball, whose older brothers Jamin and Andrew play at Stanford and Harvard, respectively, is the only senior. He will play at BYU.

It's a team that stacks up well with Menlo teams of the past.

"Last year's team was ridiculously deep,'' Shine said. "This team is not as deep, but the singles are as good as we've ever had.''

Carlmont is going after the 27th league championship under softball coach Jim Liggett, the state leader in career wins.

The Scots (19-3, 9-0) have a two-game lead over Half Moon Bay with five games left.

They've received outstanding pitching from Rebecca Faulkner (11-1, 1.07), but Liggett points to a balanced offense as a big reason for the team's success.

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"Usually three or four kids carry the team,'' Liggett said. "This year we have hitting up and down the lineup.''

Bellarmine College Prep's Mike Janda has been named Northern California Football Coach of the Year and St. Francis' Mike Oakland has been named Northern California Baseball Coach of the Year by the California Coaches' Association.